The leader of an anti-immigration pressure group has been arrested for quoting Winston Churchill. Paul Weston, chairman of LibertyGB, was taken into custody in Winchester, southern England, after delivering a speech in which he quoted an excerpt from the wartime Prime Minister’s book The River War.
Addressing a gathering of people from the steps of Winchester Guildhall, Weston quoted the passage:
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.”
A woman came of the Guildhall and asked Weston if he had authorisation to make the speech. He replied that he did not, at which point she called him “disgusting” and called the police. At least six police officers arrived, questioned by-standers and arrested Weston and took him away. Britain’s ITV News is now reporting the story.
LibertyGB claims that Weston spent several hours at Winchester Police Station, after which the original charge of breaching a Section 27 Dispersal Notice was dropped. Weston was “re-arrested” for a Racially Aggravated Crime, under Section 4 of the Public Order Act, which carries a potential prison sentence of 2 years.
He was fingerprinted and obliged to submit to DNA sampling, following which he was bailed with a return date to Winchester Police on May 24th.
LibertyGB was set up in 2013 by disaffected supporters of the British National Party. It is one of several groups that were founded as the BNP disintegrated, and is standing candidates in forthcoming European Elections.
The River War, written in 1899, recounts Churchill’s experiences as a British Army Officer in the Anglo-Sudan War of 1881-1899. Churchill is still regarded in high esteem by most of the British public, with a 2002 BBC poll voting him the greatest Briton of all time.
Earlier this month, Breitbart London reported on a demonstration by Islamist extremists at London’s Regent’s Park Mosque where no one was arrested, despite protesters shouting hateful and extremist slogans. Despite a female BBC journalist being “man handled” by Islamist demonstrators who “pushed and shoved her” while “trying to knock the camera out of her hand”, the police did not intervene.